Third time's the charm?

It is Sunday night. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It was a pretty good weekend except for the lack of running. The walk yesterday along the canal was good.







And with the exception of my bedroom, my flat is no longer a disaster area! I can even eat at my kitchen table again!

Last week I said I would:

• Run 3 days for a total of 3 miles
  
• Dance class Thursday
  
• Pilates class Friday
  
• Stretching 3 days for 10 minutes each
  
• Walk at least 3 miles this weekend
  

Note the stars. If I'd run all three times, there would be three stars. Guess I didn't want the chocolate enough. :p

Goals and Plans and Goals

It's funny how you can be thinking about and meaning to do something for days and weeks (e.g., run), and then something happens that seems to flip a switch and suddenly it seems possible again.

Well the switch was flipped for me last week, and lo and behold, I went for two (very) short runs! In the morning even!

As I mentioned last week, my new running goal is not to train for this race or that race, but to get to the point where I'm running 4-5 days a week, ideally 2-3 miles each day. The hope is that this will help keep a lid on the anxiety-depression duo that rears it's ugly head more often than I'd like.

Getting to that goal, however, requires a plan. Making a plan, in and of itself, isn't the problem. I quite like to plan things that only involve me. I am a planner. It's the sticking to the plan where I tend to run into trouble. And that, brings me back to goals.

My new running plan is to set small, attainable, weekly goals, slowly building toward my bigger, long-term goal. I know, WHAT a radical idea. I'm using Buckeye Outdoors to keep track of everything. And borrowing from Merry, I'm going to post my goals for each week on Monday, and report back at the end of the week. The theory is that this will inject a bit of accountability into the process.

As an additional motivator, there's something that I really, really want that is a complete luxury: an ebook reader. Specifically, this ebook reader. I'll be working out how I can somehow use the BeBook as a carrot for the running and other fitness/health stuff. More on that another day.

Without anymore further ado, here are my goals for this week:

• Run 3-4 days for a total of 4 miles
  
• Stretch 5-6 days, 10 minutes each time
  
• Pilates 2-3 days, for 20-30 minutes each time
  

Can I get myself out the door tomorrow morning before work? Right now I'm optimistic. Hopefully, it won't be another story in the morning!

Edit: Yes, I got out and ran my short mile this morning!

Another mile

Got the running shoes on again for another 1-mile run this morning. I'd hoped to run yesterday morning, but I was surprisingly sore from my measly 1-mile run on Wednesday. Also, I stayed up too late the night before. :p

That is all.

Merry, got any more walking scheduled for today?

One mile

I actually went for a short run this morning! True, it was only a mile, but what a sense of accomplishment just putting on my running shoes and getting out the door.

Three cheers for small accomplishments!

I've been thinking about this, and I'm going to try something different. I'd like to get to the point where I'm running 4-5 days every week, preferably on weekdays. More than anything else I need the regular aerobic exercise to help keep a lid on the stress and anxiety, most of which I tend to self-generating out of thin air.

Because I want to be running almost daily, my plan is to keep the mileage low. Reeaaally low. Like running one mile at a time to start, and working up from there. Since I'm such a slow poke, this actually takes me about 13 minutes. At this pace, one mile may not be a lot, but it is something.

I'm looking into different ideas for setting goals and tracking. So watch this space. Miracles could happen and I might actually surprise myself and start blogging regularly.

Why I Started Running

I've been doing a lot of introspection lately. A Lot. I've been debating about how much to share here, because that's not really what my blog is about. Not that my blog is about much, but it's definitely not about deep thoughts or what crazy notion is circling my head at a given moment. But this I think is worth writing down, so that I will have it on record when I need the reminder about why I have running shoes in the first place.

The Story

I've always gotten a lot of headaches. A Lot. My mom tells the story that when I was in elementary school, she would get calls about once a week from the school nurse: Your daughter says she has a headache, may I give her an aspirin.

Fast-forward 20-some years, I finally got myself to a headache doctor. His diagnosis: in technical terms, I was a stressed-out, perfectionistic, worrywart. Who me? We tried this and that, and I did generally get better, but I was still getting headaches. I was doing just about everything within my control to improve my general wellbeing, and the next step was big-time medications.

Well...everything, that is, except for this: Aerobic exercise has proven as effective as medication for controlling stress and anxiety.

Sigh...ok, fine.

Why running? Well, I could run at home. Or at a conference, or at my parent's, or on vacation, so it's portable. That was important. Also, I'd read a book* by Barbara Delinsky several years before, in which the heroine was a runner.** Not a super fantastic runner, but a woman who'd suffered from severe asthma all her life. When she decided to start running, she first researched how to start running, and then scaled back what she learned to an ultra-basic, run-walk plan.

I thought I could probably do that.

So I took myself to the library and researched how to start running. And I bought a pair of running shoes at the New Balance shop, conveniently located in the same building as my office. I used the first edition of The Beginning Runner's Handbook, and I discovered that I could run! And I didn't feel like my lungs were going to burst into flame and leave me in ashes on the sidewalk, unlike all my previous running experiences!! (Suicides in basketball and volleyball practice. Ugh.)

End Story

So, did running help with my headaches? It's definitely part of the overall picture. When I take care of myself, I have very few headaches. Let's repeat that, this time in bold.

When I take care of myself, I have very few headaches.

Taking care of myself includes, but is not limited to: getting proper sleep, getting regular exercise, not eating too much crap, and generally keeping a lid on the stress and anxiety. It seems like these basic things wouldn't be so hard to do, but as my family and friends all know, sometimes I just really, really suck at them.

From the beginning of January, I've pretty much sucked at them, and surprise, surprise, January was a pretty headachey month. I've only been running a few times two times over the past month. Even though those two runs have felt sooo good, I've just been having a really hard time getting out the door with my running shoes on. Hence, this reminder.

It's interesting. Although I enjoy the excitement of races, and it's fantastic when I improve my PR, I've discovered that they don't really motivate me to get out the door on a day-to-day basis. So although I've certainly been looking at races and plotting which ones I might enter, I think for the time being, I'm going to take a break from racing and worrying about time and speed and just focus again on getting out the door consistently.

Taking care of myself -- I don't need to run far or to be fast to do that. I just need to run.

* Moment to Moment. This is one of her early books, a fairly sweet romance that I think was originally a category. Nowadays, she writes more woman's fiction.

** Actually, in quite a few of her books that I've read, the heroine has been a runner.

Hey there, blog

Hi Blog, I see that you're still here. Although how pitiful you are looking, starved by your recent lack of attention. Yes, I know, our relationship needs work. I keep think that I will write you a post about this, or a post about that, but then do I write the post? No. I know, communication is not my strong point.

So I'm writing this post, short and boring though it is, just to get over the roadblock I seem to have built to posting. It's not much, but it's something.

I finally, finally, finally went for a run yesterday. It's been almost a month since my last half-hearted run with Marshal, my sister's dog, before Christmas. This lack of running is partly due to the snow and ice we had on the ground and partly due to inertia. When not running, it is so easy to keep on not running. (Just as when not blogging, it is so easy to keep not blogging.)

But I'd been a lump most of the weekend, and I was really feeling the need to get out and move, and it was a nice day, so I changed, and put on my new running shoes (bought before Christmas, but only worn for that one run-walk with Marshal), and headed out for the canal in the fading light.

We've had a bit of a warm up over the past several days, and the accumulated snow and ice are pretty much gone from the sidewalks. I expected the canal path to also be clear. Not so. There was still quite a bit of ice in places, of the skating-rink variety, so my new running shoes got well and truly baptized in the mud on the side of the path.

I ended up running (with just a few short walk breaks) not quite 3 miles along the canal and streets on the way back. It was a fairly average run, good to be moving if a bit sluggish.

The canal, by the way, was still frozen pretty solid, except for under the bridges. It froze over a bit last year, but nothing like this. Last weekend I walked along the canal, and some brave folks were walking and biking on the ice. Ok, that was probably safe, given that the weather hadn't been above freezing for several weeks. But driving a car? That takes a special kind of crazy.

Race Report: Paisley 10k

Hey look, my blog is still here! Flips on the light and peers around. Alright, who wrote "clean me" in the dust on my monitor?

Seeing as I have another race tomorrow, I figured I'd better get moving and actually finish my race report from my last race, almost two months ago now.

Right. August 30th I ran my fourth 10k race in Paisley. It was also my best 10k race! I ran it in under 1 hour 17 minutes, beating my previously best time from a year ago in the Great Scottish Run by 39 seconds. Woot!

I had several goals for the race, and I'm happy to say I met most of them.

• Goal 1: I was not last! Ok, given that there were over 1000 runners, this wasn't likely, but you never know. As it turns out, 65 people were slower than me. Knocked that goal out of the park.
  
• Goal 2: Yep, I beat my times from the Great Edinburgh Run and the Great North 10k!
  
• Goal 3 (unstated): Set a PR -- Check! My best 10k time before this was 1.17 something in the Great Scottish Run in September last year. That also happened to be my first 10k, but that's neither here nor there.
  
• Goal 4 (unstated): Finish in under 1:15. Nope, didn't happen. This was a long shot, but it's a goal that is within reach. I think. Eventually.
  

The race itself was fun and well organized. Highlights of the race were running through St. Mirren Stadium and along the Paisley canal towpath. The only downside was this one pair of runner-walkers. As I was running the whole thing (woot!), we kept passing each other. Unfortunately, these two were conversing nearly the whole time and completely oblivious of others who might be around them. Just the two of them somehow managed to run/walk such that they often were taking up most of the path. And once, they even ran past me, immediately crossed right over in front of me, and then dropped to a walk, nearly causing me to plow into them. Argh!

However, aside from those two, it was a great race!

As to Paisley itself, well, it's basically a suburb of Glasgow. It wasn't always that way. At one time it was a textile powerhouse. They had several statues and monuments dedicated to various dead guys named Coats. By the way, if you sew, this is the same Coats associated with the thread company.

I got there late enough in the day on Saturday that I didn't get a chance to see anything of the town. But I did take some time on Sunday after the race to walk around and see some of Paisley. Here are a few pictures that I took.

Paisley Town Hall
Paisley Abbey
Public Torture Device on display at the Paisley Museum

My next race is tomorrow, the Jedburgh 10k. Given how I've been currently running, I don't think the under 1.15 time is in my legs just quite yet. But who knows, maybe the fall leaves will inspire me and I'll surprise myself!

Off to Paisley

That sounds like a euphemism for something, but tomorrow I really will be off to Paisley. As in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. And yes, it was once a textile powerhouse, from which the paisley design takes it's name.

This particular Paisley is over on the west side of Scotland right by Glasgow. They're having a 10k race on Sunday that I'll be running in. It's only about an hour and a half away, but with Sunday morning public transport being what it is, it's not possible to get there in time for the race. So, I'll be taking the train there tomorrow and spending the night. And hopefully seeing a few things in the afternoon, if I get there in time and am in the mood.

I hear there's an Abbey.

Anywho, the 10k race. I have high hopes that it will be better than my last two 10k races. After all, I haven't been sick recently, nor have I walked up any big hills since last weekend. And it's supposed to be flat. Still my actual goals for the race are pretty modest:

Goal 1: Don't be last. I'm actually not kidding. This is going to be a much smaller race than either the Great Edinburgh Run or the Great North 10k in Sunderland, and I'm still pretty darn slow. Not that there's anything wrong with being last, but I've already been last in a race. There were only about 40 people in that race, but still. I've had my turn.

Goal 2: Beat my times from the Great Edinburgh Run and the Great North 10k. Seriously, if I just run the whole race for a change, this should be possible.

I've got a couple other goals with respect to finishing time, one of which is possible and one of which is likely not in the legs yet. But who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself!

So, off to Paisley tomorrow. That still sounds like a euphemism for something.

Hill Work Saturday

Today was the day for hills! It was also the nicest day we've had for about two weeks. It hasn't rained (yet), and we actually have had sunshine and blue skies!

*CUE ANGELS SINGING*

This morning, I ran the Horrible Hill Route. Just like last week, I was able to run all the way up the hills, although I had to drop down to a walk at the top of the Horrible Hill to get a handle on the gasping and wheezing. But I didn't stop! That might be a first. And I shaved about a minute off my time from last week. Woohoo!

But that is not all! I also spent a couple hours rambling up and around Arthur's Seat. It's a regular walking club walk, but I somehow found myself running just a bit late, and then I had the worst bus karma, and then I had to stop at the loo and there was a queue. Yes a queue for the loo. In short, I was about 20 minutes late. But this weather was not to be missed, so I started rambling around on my own on some of the less well traveled paths, and lo and behold I actually ran into the group from the walking club about an hour later. Woot!

A bit more walking, a pint of cider, and a small ice cream (dipped in Belgium chocolate) later, and I am back home, writing this. Unfortunately, in my rush I forgot my camera, so I shall leave you with this picture taken back in July, when I walked up Arthur's Seat with Little Sis. The picture is looking down the back of Arthur's Seat toward Dunsapie Loch.

Progress

I came very close to running the whole Horrible Hill route tonight. I ended up averaging only about a 13 min/mile pace, but I'm just going to roll with it and be happy. I think my idea of walking up hills as a form of cross training might actually be paying off.

The question is, can I do it again? Check back next week for the answer to that scintilating question.

Autumn of 10k Races

I haven't blogged yet about the Bupa Great North 10k that I ran with my sister last month. While it was a lot of fun to run a race with Little Sis (who did terrific, by the way), my actual race was extremely meh. As with the Great Edinburgh Run, waaay too much walking had me finishing in 1:20. Gah!

I'd like to blame my performance on walking/climbing up Berwick Law two days earlier. About halfway through, my legs just decided they were done, which has never happened to me before. I tried arguing with them, but nope. Done.

So I've decided to make it my mission this fall to improve my 10k time, and in the process to build a really solid running base for a change. My goal: to run a 10k in under 1:15, shooting for a lightning-fast 12 min/mile pace.

Stop laughing, speed is relative.

There are a few 10k races happening within a couple hours away over the next several months. I've already signed up for the Paisley 10k at the end of August. I'm also looking at the Linlithgow 10k and the Jedburgh 10k in September and October.

Oh, and needless to say, I'm giving up on the idea of a half marathon for now. Maybe next year, after I finally have that solid running base.

Happy Birthday to Me*! How old am I again?

Yes, today is my birthday! I turned 38 37. Definitely 37. If my older sister is turning 40 this year, and I am almost three years younger, then I can't be turning 38 right?

At some point in the past year or so, I seemed to have aged myself a year in my head. I'm fairly sure that I've thought of myself as being 37 all this past year, and so until I did the math about a month ago, I was sure that I was turning 38.

I'm still having a hard time remembering that I'm only 37 now. The notion was that firmly entrenched. Maybe by next year, it will have sunk in.

In other news, my little sister is visiting, and she arrived today! I can't remember the last time I spent my actual birthday with friends (come July, most leave on holiday), not to mention family.

We walked around the city a bit, and climbed up all 387 steps of the Scott Monument for fabulous views of the city, as well as some disturbing gothic architecture.

The Scott Monument. We climbed to the very top! All 287 steps!

Little Sis and me* on the Scott Monument.

In some spots on the climb up the spiral stair (which is twisting the WRONG way), it gets to be a bit of a squeeze.

View of Edinburgh Castle from the Scott Monument.

Arthur's Seat view from the top of the Scott Monument

Ok, dog faces aren't too bad.

But then there's also lots of gargoyles.

And these creepy faces stuck all over the place!

In the evening we went for a run around the neighborhood. We ran a literary version of the Horrible Hill Route, running by the homes of Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, and J.K. Rowlings. Running Partner E. was the tour guide.

Aside: My younger sister totally mocked the difficulty of the Horrible Hill. Some day, Horrible Hill, I will no longer be lame and I will be able to run up and conquer you!

To end the day, we enjoyed a pint of Caledonian 80 at the Morning Glory pub down the road. (Sorry, CMS, we didn't ask around for Billy and Alex.)

On tap for tomorrow: A bit of work during the day and then hopefully a Literary Pub Crawl in the evening.

Speedwork!

I have this problem that my running partner is now completely leaving me in the dust. Part of my problem is consistancy, which I'm working on. But Running Partner E. also likes to sprint the last several blocks (or miles) of our run. She also does things like run faster up hills. She seems to enjoy running into the wind. I do not like to do these things. We are obviously very different types of runners.

But I do like running with E. We get each other out the door. And so I feel that I must get faster. Which means, speedwork.

I don't really know that much about speedwork. From what I've read on blogs here and there, quite a few folks run speedwork intervals at tracks for 400 or 800 meters. And they are supposed to help you get faster. And then there are these things called fartleks. There, I've exhausted my knowledge.

Well, there aren't any tracks near me, at least that I know about. I also have absolutely no idea how fast I should try to run a given interval. I'm quite the slow poke, generally running 12:30-13:00 minute miles still. So I should be shooting for what? In the past I've tried the sprinting from light pole to light pole a few times. That was ok, but it seemed kind of random.

So, what to do?

The past couple weeks, I've been playing a bit with www.mapmyrun.com and the Cool Running pace calculator, looking at different road distances near me and trying to figure out how long it would take me to run a given distance, assuming a 11:30 minute mile. In doing this, I discovered that some of the paths at a nearby park give some nice, even, short distances.

And so Theresa's speedwork plan was born!

In The Meadows, there are these three paths that make a triangle loop and together add up to 0.5 miles (Jawbone Walk, Middle Meadow Walk, and the path along the road between them). Jawbone Walk is 0.2 miles, which makes the other two sides together 0.3 miles! (Yay, for basic math skills! Although I still measured all the sides on www.mapmyrun.com, because I am a dork.)

So my plan is this: To run speedwork intervals first using the 0.2 mile Jawbone Walk segment as the bit that I sprint, with the remaining 0.3 for recovery. Then move up to using the 0.3 segment for sprints, and eventually moving up to using the whole 0.5 miles for sprint intervals. Simple, right?

Tonight was my trial run. I figured, given the slow poke that I am, shooting to run Jawbone Walk (the 0.2 mile segment) at an 11:30 min/mile pace was reasonable, which meant I would need to run it in 2:18 minutes.

I ran the loop twice, sprinting as fast as I thought I could along Jawbone Walk. Which was not pleasant. My stomach started hurting very quickly, and by the end, I had a stitch in my side. My times for the 0.2 mile sprints: 1:54 and 1:49 minutes which work out to around a 9:30 min/mile or faster. What?!?! Ok, I know it's only 0.2 miles, but that's way crazy faster than I thought I could run!

Assuming tonight wasn't a complete fluke, and I didn't miscalculate, I now have a baseline. Still, a 9:30 min/mile pace? Next week, I'm going to try to run the loop four times, with a 10 min/mile pace for the Jawbone Walk sprint segments. That still seems wildly fast for me, but I guess it's possible if it's only 0.2 miles.

Enough about speedwork. Tomorrow, pictures of someplace new that I went today!

Divebombed

What was it with the wee bugs that kept making suicide runs toward my face this evening?! At least one met his end in my eye and another in my mouth. Yuck.

So it was the Horrible Hill Route tonight. And between the divebombing bugs and the GI issues (again), it was definitely on the horrible side. With much walking on the hills. But, slightly faster than last week, so I suppose that's something.

No more broccoli for me for lunch on days that I run in the evening I think.

Once more, with feeling

So yeah, goals. My running goal for May was to run three times per week. How did I do? Well, meh.

Week 1: 3 runs
Week 2: 3 runs
Week 3: 1 run, but with lots and lots and lots of walking that weekend
Week 4: 2 runs

And the first week of June: big fat zero!

The Horrible Hill route tonight was PAINFUL, and I now have my worst time ever for that route. (The GI issues didn't help. I made it home in time. Barely.)

Back to goals and such. I said that if I managed to stick to my 3x per week goal, I would sign up for the Erie half-marathon. Unlike a 5k or 10k, I can't be totally slacking off my training plan if I want to try to run this race. But the more I think about it, the more I really want to give it a go. Yet this inability to get myself out the door to train thing is definitely a problem.

So let's try this again. For the next 5 weeks (including this week), my goal is to run 3x per week. Plus, I'm going to up the ante a bit by also committing to either a 4th run or a long walk each week.

This week's runs will be on Tuesday (done!), Thursday, and Friday.

It's a bit late, but not too late to start training for the Erie half-marathon. I've found a training plan that builds up from a 10k to a half-marathon, which is just what I need. If I can stick to this plan and meet my goals over the next five weeks, I'm signing up!

Me versus The Hill: Week 3

Tonight I ran the Horrible Hill route by myself! Running partner E. was busy last night, so of course I put off going for a run. I almost put it off again tonight, but finally, after I procrastinated a bit, I kicked myself out the door. That's a small triumph right there.

Then, I was tempted to run a different route and avoid The Hill. But no! I will conquer this route by the end of summer. And alas, the only way to conquer it is to actually run it. Another small triumph.

So off I went, peering warily at the ominous clouds. It looked like the sky was considering falling, but luckily, the rain mostly held off until the end of the run. And the sky did not actually fall, so that's good, too.

As far as how the run went, I discovered that it is more enjoyable not to be struggling to keep up with running partner E. At no point did I feel the need to keel over as I tried to catch my breath. However, the fact that I wasn't pushing myself as hard definitely showed up in my time.

• Last week: 45:36


• This week: 46:03

But, I definitely felt that I did better on the hills. I employed the strategy suggested by Ted of taking very small steps when running up hills. On the Horrible Hill, it actually felt like I was running up stairs. I think this definitely helped, as this week I made it at least 3/4 of the way to the top before stopping to walk. So thanks, Ted! And I ran most of the way up the hill at the end too!

Hills, I will conquer you!

Overall, definite improvements toward my goal of running the Horrible Hill route in its entirety. We'll see how next week goes when I'm once again trying to keep up with E.

Two Weeks of Success

My running goal for May is to run three times each week. I'm at the half-way point now and so far, success!

The first week was tough. Running partner E. and I ran our regular Tuesday evening run, but then I procrastinated and was faced with having to run on both Saturday and Sunday if I wanted to accomplish my goal. I managed to get myself out for a run on Saturday, but running partner E. wasn't free for our regular Sunday run. Having only internal motivation to get me out and running two days in a row almost resulted in a fail for the week. But I persevered, and did squeek out a rather pitiful 2+ mile run late in the day Sunday.

With my 6 mile run this morning (with E.) I finished out a successful week 2. Horray! This morning's run was completed in just under 1:16, which averages out to about a 12:24 min/mile pace. Again, I'm apparently very consistent. This is almost exactly my time for this same route three weeks ago, before the Great Edinburgh Run.

I was able to keep up with running partner E. through about mile 4, before having to slow down. One thing I'm hoping is that the more consistent 3x/week running will help me get a bit faster to better keep up with E. Because even running just two days a week, she is getting quite speedy! Of course, E. also likes to push herself with sprints and by running faster up hills, hence, her speed demon qualities. Ah well, we'll see at the end of the month if there's a glimmer of hope that the increased mileage is having an effect.

I Hate Hills

Yes, I know, it's a bad attitude to have, but there you go. Fitness-wise, I know that incorporating hills into my runs is a Good Thing. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

My current nemesis is this hill, the one that starts just before the mile 1 marker and goes up at a 4% incline for about a quarter mile.
I can make it about half way up before I have to walk, and at the top I have to stop and gasp for breath for a good 20 seconds.

Aside: The hill at the end isn't a picnic either. I end up walking partway up that one too.

This week is the second week that my running partner and I have run this route. Last Tuesday, I got an email from running partner E. saying she couldn't stand to run our regular evening route one more time. Could I find us another route? And I came up with this one, so I have no one to blame but myself.

This evening, as I was huffing and puffing my way to the top of the Horrible Hill, I decided that this will be my long-term goal for the summer. To build up to being able to run the entire route, including the Horrible Hill.

I still have a ways to go. Alas, my three runs last week, did not give me an instantaneous increase in speed and stamina.

• Last week's time: 45:35
• This week's time: 45:36

That's a very sad, 12:34 pace.

Ah well, at least I'm consistent.

This evening running partner E. finally confirmed what I long suspected: she speeds up on hills. It's almost enough to make me want to cry.

May Running Goal

Having goals. It's supposed to be a good thing right? Unfortunately, while I'm fairly good at coming up with goals in my head, I'm not so good at sticking with them.

Ah yes, this would be accountability. I generally have none, especially when it comes to running. Having a running partner keeps me running twice a week, and that's about it.

So, let's try this. I am publically declaring that I will run three times a week in May. That means just once a week, I need to get myself out the door without my running partner. It should be doable. Right? RIGHT?

It will also have the benefit of hopefully helping me get faster before my running partner leaves me in the dust in disgust.

Sigh.

So far this week, I ran on Tuesday (albeit on a new, hillier route, with one particular hill that almost did me in). So I must run tomorrow and Sunday. I can do this, even if the awful, ferocious winds we've been having for days on end don't stop. Right? RIGHT?

And if I do manage to achieve this goal, to punish reward myself, I will sign up for the Erie 1/2 marathon. Dear Bob, did I actually just type that?!?

Update: Week one, success! Although Sunday evening's 2.22 mile run was rather pitiful.

Great Edinburgh Run, with Daleks and Stormtroopers!

So I ran in the Great Edinburgh Run today. And walked in it quite a bit as well. This was my second 10k race, but I was just not in the mood. My stomach was aching (thanks to what I took for the headache I woke up with), and my legs were tired for no reason I could figure. And there were hills. And I forgot tissues, so by about kilometer 6 in desperation I turned to wiping my nose on my sleeve, yuck. Given that I'm not one to really push myself on a good running day, I whimped out rather early. Whine, whine, whine.

But, it was a terrific day to be out and about Edinburgh! And I took my camera, because I was already planning to have fun with the race, even before I decided to whimp out.

The race started on the George IV Bridge, right in the middle of Old Town.


We started the race by crossing the Royal Mile and heading down the Mound for views of Edinburgh Castle and the National Gallery.



After a short jaunt through one of the Princes Street Gardens, we headed back up toward the Royal Mile.



Then it was down the Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament and and past Holyrood Palace. Most of the rest of the first half of the race was spent running below Arthur's Seat.



The middle bits of the race were less interesting, running through parts of the city that are certainly historical, but not really worth stopping to take a picture. One cool thing about Edinburgh is that the city is 3 dimensional. A bit more than half-way, we actually ran under the George IV Bridge where the race started.


The race ended with a run around the Meadows and back to George IV Bridge for the finish.


In all honesty, Edinburgh doesn't get much prettier than this. If you were ever thinking of visiting, now is the right time of year!



As in many races, there are the folks who like to take it to the extreme with their race kit. Or lack there of. Sorry ladies, I wasn't quite brave enough to snap a pic of the nearly naked guy, who was only wearing shoes and what looked like an adult version of underoos. There was also a guy running in a kilt. But the best costumes by far were the dalek and the storm trooper with cross-dressing Leia.




I just checked my official time, and I finished in 1:19:43. What?! I have how idea how this is possible given how much I walked. That's under a 13 min/mile average pace. Bah!